BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – The Barbados government has moved to assure that there is no import ban on Jamaican patties following concerns expressed by Jamaican authorities.
Barbados media Thursday indicated that Jamaica’s Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Osbil Watson, had called his Barbadian counterpart, Dr Mark Trotman, seeking clarification in the wake of media reports surfacing in Jamaica that the eastern Caribbean island had targeted Jamaican patty imports.
Trotman said that he assured Watson that the pastries from Jamaica would be allowed to enter Barbados as long as the importer possessed the necessary import permit.
The Barbados government had Tuesday issued a notice on cooked meats imports, advising, “Persons interested in importing patties of any variety from Jamaica, or fully- cooked poultry products from any CARICOM country, must also obtain a permit”.
It further advised, “individuals may import up to 25 pounds of commercially canned meat products in the original packaging without a permit from any country for personal use”.
Trotman said Thursday that the issuing of permits was done twice yearly at Crop Over and Christmas when many persons came into the island with various meat products.
Crop Over activities have begun and will step into high gear in late July, ending the first week in August.
“We simply put a public service announcement in the papers reminding the public that they need to get their permits in a timely fashion,” Trotman said, adding, “What we have changed recently is we have put the validity of the permits to 30 days. Before it didn’t have an expiry date on it once you got the permit, which made no sense from an animal health and public health standpoint because the permits are supposed to regulate if diseases occur in the country of origin”.
